Lagardère Active and SFR sign strategic partnership agreement

Lagardère Active and SFR have announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement aimed at developing audiences and monetizing the web portal of French telecommunications operator SFR.

This is the first far-reaching agreement of this kind signed in France between a telecommunications Group and a Media Group. This will pave the way for new development opportunities in web-based and mobile digital media for both Groups.

Beginning on 1st January 2011, collaboration between the two groups will encompass three areas:

• Lagardère Active will handle the publishing by delegated administration of editorial sections of SFR’s web-based and mobile portals through recognized brands and contents.
• SFR Régie, the mobile advertising sales arm of this operator, will be selling from Q1, 2011 ad space on the ELLE, Public and Boursier.com mobile sites, which are also referenced on SFR mobile portals.
• Lagardère Publicité, as of 01/01/2011, will sell on an exclusive basis the advertising space of sfr.fr, one of France’s foremost Web portals.

After issuing an invitation to tender and vetting many applicants over several months, SFR picked Lagardère Active for its capacity to monetize its advertising inventories on the web, its undisputed expertise in ad selling on the Internet and its editorial know-how on any media, whether print or web-based.

Lagardère Active will provide SFR web and mobile portals with leading editorial services for news, sport, finance, women and celebrities using the editorial teams of Europe1, Boursier.com, Elle.fr, and Public.fr with the support of its subsidiary Cellfish.

Lagardère Publicité is France’s benchmark digital advertising sales organization with a network of premium sites that attract some 18,7 million Unique Visitors (Nielsen, October 2010) and reach 47% of the internet user population, and with a strong presence in all major editorial segments: women, children, news, travel, cars, e-commerce and entertainment thanks to recognized and powerful brands.

Through this alliance with the SFR portal, a powerful and all-inclusive site which totals 13.6 million Unique Visitors to date, Lagardère Publicité will become the 6th largest advertising sales organization on the web with a de-duplicated audience from the Lagardère network of 21,6 million Unique Visitors by 1st January 2011.

Didier Quillot, CEO of Lagardère Active, said « This new cooperation agreement is the perfect illustration of what the digital assets of the Lagardère Active Group can achieve. Thanks to our publishing, monetizing and audience development capabilities, we area able to offer a global approach to help SFR effectively meet the challenges faced by its audience handling services ».

Jérémie Manigne, Managing Director in charge of SFR Innovation Services and Contents, said: « Through this partnership, SFR will be able to offer to its 20 million plus customers a web-based and mobile portal augmented with high-quality content from Lagardère Active. This partnership will also enable SFR Régie, a leading site for mobile audience monetization to enrich the offering proposed to advertisers with the marketing of media brands such as ELLE, Public and Boursier.com. »

Constance Benqué, President of Lagardère Publicité, said « The entry of the sfr.fr portal into our internet space selling organization is a genuine opportunity for growth. This portal, which attracts 13.6 million Unique Visitors, associated with our current offering, will enable us to propose to both advertisers and partner agencies a full range of comprehensive advertising solutions. The fact of combining the instantaneous power of sfr.fr with leading editorial content will position us the ideal partner for providing the right response to all kinds of market issues »